


Ater

by vanitaslaughing



Series: Ignoct Week [5]
Category: Final Fantasy XV
Genre: Haircuts, M/M, Older Ignis, Older Noctis, rapunzel and rapunzel related media references
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-10
Updated: 2018-02-10
Packaged: 2019-03-16 07:11:38
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,090
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13631271
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/vanitaslaughing/pseuds/vanitaslaughing
Summary: “Ignis, strategy meeting.”





	Ater

**Author's Note:**

> Ignoct Week, Day 4 - Time Quest: Strategy “Meetings”

“Ignis, strategy meeting.”

Noctis’ voice was oddly hushed, flustered almost. Ignis had missed that voice so dearly in the last ten years, but something about this was odd. He had sounded so dignified earlier. So… resigned despite likely trying to sound like he had the determination to pull this through. Though ten years had passed without him, Ignis still knew him better than anyone else on all of Eos.

Which made that tone of voice even more perplexing.

They would stay at Hammerhead for a bit longer before setting out for the Crown City together. He decided to humour Noctis’ request. He tried to tell himself that it was out of duty, because of the oaths he had sworn over and over and over until his voice was raw over the last ten years. There was absolutely no ulterior move, no immense urge to spend as much time as possible with the man he knew he would lose before long.

The trailer was still the same it had been when they had first come here, and Ignis almost pointed that out. But Noctis was effectively pulling him along now – at least neither Prompto nor Gladio would attempt to look for them for a while. Prompto was busy discussing something about cars with Cindy, and Gladio was on the phone with his girlfriend.

Noctis pulled him in and closed the door. There was the distinct sound of Noctis letting himself fall onto one of the beds in here.

“Haven’t you slept for ten years? Why do you need someone to watch your nap anyway?”

“No! No watching me sleep. Iggy, please, sit down next to me. Just for a sec.”

Well, that was peculiar. Ignis decided to humour Noctis further. This surely wasn’t going to be like back when they had been teenagers, or back during the time they travelled Lucis together with the other two. Noctis clearly still sounded flustered – Noctis did not sound that flustered whenever he demanded some kind of attention from Ignis when they were younger. For a horrifying second Ignis thought that perhaps the last ten years had somehow made Noctis think that he did only serve him because of the oaths he had sworn.

Ignis sat down slowly. Noctis was bouncing one of his legs – he was nervous.

“Well, that’s gonna sound so fucking weird...” He still talked like the 20-year-old that had vanished into the Crystal rather than the 30-year-old king people would expect him to sound like now, the sad tinge to his voice all aside. “Iggy. You were… always good with hair, yeah? Are you still? ‘Cause I could really use a hand with that mop on my head right now, and between Gladio, Prompto and you there’s only one person in the whole world that I’d trust enough to take care of my hair.”

“Prompto and Gladio are not that bad with hair… Wait, what? Your hair? Care to elaborate on that, Noct?”

He heard Noctis sigh and turned his face towards the source of the noise. Noctis was absolutely wringing his hands as he sat there, obviously thinking about what to say next or how to proceed. A moment passed and Noctis went to drag his hand through his hair. A familiar sound. Short, sweet, familiar.

Well, it used to be short.

The sound dragged on and on, for longer than usual.

Ignis realised what the hell Noctis meant and had to stifle a snort.

“I think I get it.”

“It’s so _embarrassing.”_

“You’re asking a blind man to take care of your hair.” Ignis laughed when Noctis grabbed his hands. “You never change, do you, Noct?”

“Ignis,” Noctis sounded like he was in despair, “I look like freakin’ Rapunzel. It’s awful. Ten years in a darn Crystal and the scaled bastard doesn’t even take care of my damn hair.”

“So Bahamut is a reverse Mother Gothel. Traps you in a place but doesn’t need your hair to enter it. I see, I see.”

Noctis was sighing again, this time clearly amused but also pretending to be annoyed by Ignis’ extremely flat joke.

“Please, help me?”

“I’ll do what I can, but you’ll need to help me with it. Trust me or not, there is a chance that I will screw this up on virtue of not seeing what I’m doing.”

* * *

An hour of carefully snipping and cutting where necessary later, Noctis sighed in relief.

“Good, now I don’t look like I’ve been trapped in a tower since early childhood.”

Ignis snorted. “It was not _that_ long. And besides, you have been trapped. In a Crystal rather than a tower, and since your early adulthood rather than your birth. Though I must admit thinking of the Draconian as Mother Gothel was amusing.”

“Well, in strategy meetings you usually discuss things like that, yeah? Let’s call it a code name for Bahamut.”

Ignis laughed as he drew his fingers through Noctis’ hair one more time to check of he had missed anything. Noctis himself almost leaned into that touch, and Ignis’ chest felt like someone was trying to crush it.

“Very well, a code name. That would lead to the conclusion that your code name in this operation is Rapunzel, given it was your hair.”

Noctis laughed as he turned around and poked a finger into Ignis’ chest. “That’d make you the prince. Handsome, intelligent, loves Rapunzel, gets...”

Blinded.

The prince in the fairy tale got blinded. Noctis bit his tongue, Ignis blinked underneath his visor. The atmosphere had gone from familiar to awkward very quickly, but Ignis knew that this had not been entirely intentional.

Therefore he chose to snort again. “Me, a prince? Please. I would be the animal sidekick Rapunzel gets in every adaption. A chameleon. Birds.”

“Didn’t she get a dragon in one?”

“A singing dragon, no less.”

“Can’t relate. You’re a dragon, but you don’t sing.”

“Better watch your words, Your Majesty, or else you’ll get burned. I still have the scissors. How about I _just_ fix your hair a little more? Perhaps if I searched long enough I could find a razor. Shave you bald like Clarus Amicitia. How would you like _that?”_

Noctis laughed and shoved Ignis softly. “Anything but that. I take it back, you’re not a dragon. Can’t say much about the singing part, you’d have to sing to me for that.”

“Oh, beloved Noctis, mayhap I will serenade you ere the night ends. As long as you let down your hair for me.”

“You better make that happen.”

“Anything for you.”


End file.
